T-Mobile, Sprint amend merger terms; to close deal as early as April 1

Smartphones with the logos of T-Mobile and Sprint are seen in this illustration taken September 19, 2017. /Reuters

T- Mobile U.S. and Sprint Corp said on Thursday that they had agreed on new merger terms and were looking to close the deal as early as April 1.

Under the revised deal, T- Mobile's parent Deutsche Telekom will hold about 43 percent of the combined entity, up from the 42 percent that the German group would have held. SoftBank will hold about 24 percent and the rest by public shareholders.

SoftBank has agreed to surrender about 48.8 million T-Mobile shares acquired in the merger to the "new company" after the deal closes, changing the exchange ratio to 11 Sprint shares for each T-Mobile share, higher than the originally agreed 9.75 shares.

Sprint shareholders other than SoftBank will continue to receive the original fixed exchange ratio.

Shares of Sprint were up by five percent to 9.95 U.S. dollars, while T-Mobile fell by 1.5 percent to 98 U.S. dollars in trading after the bell.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the news.

Last week, a federal judge approved the merger deal, rejecting a claim by a group of states that said the proposed transaction would violate antitrust laws and raise prices.

New York on Sunday dropped its fight against the merger of the U.S. wireless carriers, saying the state would not appeal the judge's approval of the deal.

Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim Hoettges said on Wednesday the new T-Mobile would have a market value of around 120 billion U.S. dollars. That compares with 274 billion U.S. dollars for ATT and 242 billion U.S. dollars for Verizon.

Source(s): Reuters